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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

DIY: Comic Con Lanyard Display

Lanyard Collage Display Tutorial

August 27, 2015

Completed project

Although I like to scrapbook, I wanted a better way to keep
my lanyards from the Comic Cons I’ve been going to.I haven’t been to many, but I want to start
going to more in the coming years.I
began searching for ideas on Pinterest, and couldn’t find anything specific for
lanyards or comic-cons. There were
plenty of ways to display medals and bibs for races (5k’s, marathons, etc.) so
I figured I could something similar for the lanyards.I had a difficult time deciding on the style
I wanted, but I decided to use this over-the-door coat hanger I’ve had for
years and hadn’t used.The original plan
was to use drawer pulls, but once I realized the coat rack would fit perfectly
onto the wood plaque I had bought for this project, I just had to use it (and
save some $$ in the process)!

I had a bunch of Entertainment Weekly magazines in a pile
for recycling so I went through them cutting out pictures of anything I was
interested in.I cut out pictures of
other popular shows, too, in case any friends would want one of these, too.

Supplies:

Wood Plaque – Under $10 (w/Michaels 40% off coupon)

Mod Podge – I used gloss since it’s what I had on hand

Paint brush – natural bristle is best, but a foam brush will
work

Coat rack – had on hand (or use hooks, nails, drawer pulls,
etc.)

Screws and washers – Under $2 for both

Picture hanging hardware – had on hand

Pictures cut from magazines

Instructions:

Using
magazine pictures is great because they don’t bleed like self-printed
photos and they are thin for overlapping.Plan out how you want the pictures placed on the plaque (DO NOT
GLUE).Once you are happy with your
layout, take photos on your phone or camera, then, carefully place the
pictures aside in the same layout as they are on the plaque.

Figure out the photo placement

Pictures placed to the side - close to arrangement

Spread
a thin layer of Modge Podge on a section of the plaque you are going to
cover (TIP: I should have placed a coat of Modge Podge on the plaque to
seal it as the wood was very porous and made the pictures wrinkle too
easily.)

Starting the Modge Podge gluing

Once
all of the pictures are glued onto the plaque, spread a thin coat of Modge
Podge across the entire surface moving either horizontally or
vertically.Let dry according to
directions, then repeat.I used 4
coats, 2 going vertically, then 2 more going horizontally across the
plaque.Allow to dry 24 hours or at
least overnight before beginning the next step.

You can see the wrinkling and the modge podge isn't dry

I
turned the plaque over and positioned the coat rack on the back.I used 4 - ½” long metal screws (meant
for use on metal) to attach the rack to the back of the plaque.I had to use washers since the heads of
the screws weren’t quite wide enough to hold the rack in place between the
bars (see second photo below).

Place the coat rack across the back of the plaque

The
place on the wall where I planned on hanging this plaque already had two
nails in the wall where I had a large photo frame, so I used these “teeth”
picture hanging hardware ( I don’t know what they’re really called) for the
plaque.This saved me from pulling
the nails out and putting more holes into the wall of my apartment.

Attached the hardware for hanging.

I’ll need to find my other comic
con lanyards to hang on my new display, and I’m excited to continue adding to
my collection.

Finished product hanging on the wall

Have you made this project? How do you display or store your comic con lanyards/badges?